Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde
This takes place after "It's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new year"
A/N Thank you so much for reading along and for all your wonderful reviews. They really do keep me going. :) Thank you :)
M rating
Thank you Margaret for not thinking my title as stupid as I did (think Pac man) and thank you for reading ahead as my Beta. :)
Chapter Two— This old house
The visit wasn't as bad as I expected. Everyone was genuinely happy for us, and no one brought up Joe. Thank God.
While we were saying goodbye to my family, Ranger called Santos and he agreed to meet us at the gate to the Sweeney estate in fifteen minutes. Ranger had keys, so there was no need to involve his real estate agent in the process.
Of course Ranger went through his routine of opening the passenger door for me and making sure I was belted in and thoroughly kissed before locking me in and taking his place on the driver's side. It was kind of cute. And I was sure my mother and grandmother watched the whole production.
When we got to the estate in Ewing, Santos was sitting in his vintage Ford Mustang outside. Ranger fobbed us through the gate and we headed single-file up the small hill that led to the house. It really was a beautiful setting and if I didn't get the feeling there was more to it than met the eye, I'd jump at the chance to live there.
As soon as Ranger opened the front door, I felt it again. The chill just came over my arms and upper body. Of course it was January in Trenton and the heat in the house had been turned way down to keep oil usage to a minimum.
"Babe, Santos. I want to walk through the house and get a feel for everything. I know we'll have to renovate a few things if we decide to buy and I'd love for you two to help me make some decisions. I'm pretty sure the heating system needs to be entirely revamped, so maybe we should start there."
We were going to start in the basement…in the boiler room? Holy fuck, was Ranger kidding me?
"When Elsa took me through this house for the first time last week she showed me where the hidden staircases are. Since this house was owned by gentry, it was a way for the servants to never be seen as they traveled through the house. Come…let me show you."
Ranger opened a door just to the inside of the foyer that was no wider than a small coat closet. I kind of reminded me of the door to Harry Potter's room when he lived with his aunt and uncle. The staircase was narrow and steep with limited headroom and I wondered how Lester and Ranger would be able to even fit in this space.
Suddenly I got a chill and I put my left hand to the wall to steady myself as we began to descend the stairs.
"Beautiful, is that what I think it is?" Lester said behind me. "Let me see that ring? Did Ranger give that to you?"
"Uh yeah. Ranger and I got engaged…um, here…last night. I, um, said yes."
"Well congratulations. There's no room in this stairway to pull you in for a hug but once we get to the basement I'll twirl you around." Funny thing was, I knew he wasn't kidding.
"Les?"
"What, Beautiful?"
"Ranger told me you grew up in haunted house. What was that like? Are you sensing anything strange here?"
"I never thought of our house as being haunted. We just had a ghost…or maybe it was two. I noticed the cold air when we first set foot in this place, but if Ranger's take that the boiler needs to be replaced is correct, that could be a big part of it. So far nothing is standing out as 'off' to me."
It was slow going walking down the stairs, especially since I was wearing four-inch heels. I didn't know why Ranger had to go this way. If these were servant stairs, weren't their master stairs somewhere else?
"Are we almost there?" I asked. Ranger was in the lead and I couldn't see over, around or through him.
"Yeah Babe, just three more stairs and then we open a door. Hold on, I'm going to stop."
Ranger opened the door that led into the basement and the dank smell suddenly hit my nostrils.
"It smells like raw earth," I said, putting my hand to my nose.
"It is. It's just a dirt floor Babe. Stay where you are, I want to put some lights on."
I was thoroughly creeped out—dirt floor, no lights, God help me. I reached back and grabbed Santos' hand. I wasn't walking in there by myself.
"Are you afraid, Beautiful?"
"No," I lied. "I just don't want to fall."
Suddenly I heard the sound of banging pipes. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. I practically jumped into Lester's arms.
"I know you want me Beautiful, but this is no way to behave in front of your fiancé."
"Shut up Lester, this isn't funny. That scared the hell out of me."
"You need to get used to creaky pipes. It's part of old house charm."
Charm my ass.
"The Rangeman building is old, why doesn't it sound like that?"
"It's not as old as this and I think Ranger replaced the entire heating system."
That was when I heard the footsteps on the floor above us. I was ready to have a heart attack when someone opened the door at the top of the stairs and called down.
"Ranger? Are you down here?"
It was a female voice. "Elsa?" I called back, hoping I remembered the name of his real estate agent correctly.
"Yes?"
"It's Stephanie Plum, Ranger's fiancé. We're down here, but Ranger just went into the basement to turn some lights on. Lester and I can come up if you need us." I volunteered, thinking it might be safer upstairs than it was down here.
"Come up when you're ready. I'm glad I bumped into you. I was able to get the building inspector to come out here tomorrow to go over the place like Ranger asked. I'll be in the living room."
Lights came on in the large open space in front of me and when I peeked in, the basement wasn't nearly as scary as I'd imagined. There was a big old boiler and lots and lots of overhead pipes, a few bare light bulbs hanging from simple electrical sockets and little else. Oh and a rusted bicycle with two flat tires that had to be at least fifty years old. How the hell anyone got that down these stairs was beyond me.
"Ranger?" I called, still not seeing where he'd disappeared to.
"I'm here Babe." Ranger's voice came from somewhere behind the massive boiler. "I can't get the boiler to go on until I put some water in it."
"Elsa is here, she said something about getting an inspector."
"Ok Babe, I'll be right out, we can come back down later."
You can come back down; I've had enough down, I'd like to go up and stay up.
It was hard for Lester to maneuver in the narrow staircase, so he asked me to go forward so that we could step into the basement room in order to turn around. As soon as my feet touched the dirt under them I got freaked out all over again. Thankfully Les kept his promise and picked me up to twirl me in a congratulatory hug.
"Congratulations Beautiful. I'm really happy for you and the boss man. Do I get to come to the wedding?"
"We haven't talked about a wedding, but I'd really like for you to be there," I said honestly. "And Tank and Bobby, Hector, Hal…all of you. I would feel terrible if we left anyone out. I guess you'll just have to close Rangeman down for the day."
"Beautiful it'll be a national holiday. No one ever expected Ranger to get married again."
"Are you talking about me?" Ranger said, making a reappearance from behind the boiler.
I was just about to answer when the bang, bang, bang…bang, bang, bang started all over again.
"Shit," I said, jumping. I was standing under one of the pipes and it was loud. Then just as suddenly a rush of cold air blew by me causing me to shiver.
"Babe are you ok?"
"I'd like to go upstairs; this basement is giving me the creeps. And you wanted my take on the whole house. If I spend anymore time down here I'll want to nix everything."
Ranger came over and pulled me close. He basically ignored Santos' presence to put his arms around me and kiss me deeply. God could this man kiss.
"Shit man, you guys are hot together," Lester said with a huge grin on his face.
"Mats Santos. 5 am."
The three of us turned around and went back up the stairs, Lester was in the lead this time and Ranger picked up the rear after he went back into the basement to turn off the lights and shut the door behind us.
I felt hands on my ass as we walked up the stairs. Remind me to never get in front of Ranger on a steep, narrow staircase again.
Elsa was waiting for us in the living room and after introductions she got down to business.
"I was able to get the Ewing housing inspector by phone today. After I apologized for calling on New Year's Day I told him just who was interested in getting a pre-sale inspection and he all of a sudden became very accommodating. He'll meet you here at 10 am tomorrow morning."
"Shit," Ranger said, quite abruptly. Ranger never curses in front of company, so I knew something was up. "I'm sorry. I have a nine thirty meeting with the Mayor's office that I can't move. Stephanie, can you be here tomorrow for the inspection?"
I had nothing on my plate as tomorrow was my first day back from an extended closure of the Bond's office so that Vinnie could take Lucille on a cruise. So unfortunately I was free for this inspection.
"I'm good, I can be here. What do you need me to do?"
"Just meet the building inspector and myself here at 10 am tomorrow," Elsa said. "He'll take us through the house and let us know what's up to code and what isn't. I suspect very little is up to today's code, so let's be ready with a checkbook."
I didn't have the ability to sign checks for Ranger so I just looked at him.
"It's ok Babe, I put you on my account a long time ago. You can just sign."
Holy shit. News to me.
"Ok. I'll meet you here at ten. Ranger wanted Lester's and my opinion of the place in the daylight," I said in way of an explanation for our being here. And also to let on that I'd been here before.
"I'll walk with you through the place too, in case you have any questions."
I hadn't seen much of the house except for the living room, dining room and the powder room on the first floor last night, so I was anxious to see the rest of it too. Especially since Ranger seemed so enamored with it.
"Let's start with the kitchen. I think that room needs the most work. Obviously the utilities still work, you used them last night, but they are old and probably in need of updating."
The kitchen was a disaster. I was glad I didn't see it last night or I would never have eaten anything.
"Babe the caterers brought the food in. They just used the stove to reheat everything," Ranger said, reading my mind. "I'm almost certain we'll have to gut this room. But look how it opens to what I imagine is a pretty garden."
I didn't garden so that was lost on me. But this was Ranger; he'd probably get gardeners.
"I think those are rose bushes," I added, seeing something that looked like it might have thorns on it.
"Shall we go upstairs?" Elsa asked, when I seemed to have been kitchened out.
"There are five bedrooms and two baths upstairs," she continued. Like I'd ever have need for five bedrooms.
We went up the creaky old master stairs. If they weren't so creaky and in need of a lot of attention, they would have been pretty with their curved wooden banisters and over-sized steps.
The upstairs rooms were small, well except for the master bedroom. The baths were old and the pipes rusting. I glanced into one of the tubs and I knew there was no way I'd ever be able to take a bath in it, without about a year of scrubbing.
"Babe, we can gut these too. We'll need all new plumbing anyway." Mind reader.
"There's a partial third floor above this with two other bedrooms and one additional bath. And then there's an attic above that," Elsa told us taking the lead going up the next set of stairs.
"Les, are you feeling anything?" I asked our resident ghost expert.
"No, but I may be out of shape. I haven't lived home in fifteen years. I like this place though. It needs work, but I can see you and Ranger living here."
He could? I couldn't.
After we had the full tour, including the creepy attic Ranger asked for my thoughts. "Well, Babe?"
"I'm no expert, but I think it needs a lot of work."
"I'm pretty sure it will, but we're in no rush. Before you make up your mind lets see what the building inspector has to say."
"I can come with you tomorrow," Lester said, hanging up his phone and putting it back into his pocket.
"Thanks Les, I'm not sure I want to be here alone with you know…spooks."
Elsa heard my comment to Lester and looked at me strangely. "You think there are ghosts here?"
I just nodded my head up and down. I didn't want to make a big deal of it.
We said goodbye to everyone and Elsa locked up the place. I was happy Les could come with me tomorrow if Ranger couldn't. I didn't particularly know much about houses and if the building inspector asked me anything I wouldn't know how to answer him. I figured between Elsa and Lester I was off the hook.
As we were riding back to Rangeman in the turbo I decided to ask Ranger some questions.
"So why are you so drawn to this house?"
"I told you. I like that it's already a gated piece of property and I like that the house is set way back and on a hill. All good security measures. I noticed some soft wood in the basement today though, so I'm a little concerned about that. If it's anything major the inspector will let us know."
"What does soft wood mean?"
"It could mean rot or just being in close proximity to a leaky pipe—but somehow there is moisture in the wood. And that's not a good thing."
"What if it's rotten?"
"I don't know. I've never encountered that before. Let's hope our inspector is honest."
I accepted that and went on to my last and most important question.
"So did you enjoy feeling my ass on the way up those little tiny stairs?"
"Babe?" Ranger pulled over, stopped the turbo and looked at me. "I was nowhere near your ass."